I have this MacBook Pro (3,1). I know there are maximum temperatures at which the system will shut itself down in order to prevent damage. I know this because I have seen it happen a couple of times

When I run Windows, apparently the OS doesn't care to throttle power in order to reduce dangerous heat like Mac OS X does. I now have a program that monitors CPU and GPU heat when I run Windows 7, and it will sound an alarm if they reach a pre-set ceiling.

My question is, how do I know what the emergency shutdown temperature is so I can set the alarm limit appropriately (low enough to trigger before catastrophe, but high enough that it doesn't trigger when things are still okay)?

This page from Intel seems to be telling me that the CPU should not go above 100°C ...does that seem like the number I'm looking for?

Nvidia doesn't seem to say anything about temperatures on the product page. User forums seem only to speculate on what is or isn't safe with no real specifications to back them up.

How can I find these numbers, either from Intel & Nvidia, or from Apple? Or, is there a general ceiling that I can go by to make sure my alarm warns me before an emergency shutdown?

By trial and emergency-shutdown-error, I think this is about right. I'm usually running Windows when it gets hot, which, without the Mac OS X kernel extension to throttle processing power and keep things cool, the temperature can go up to about 110 C, but more than that and it tends to shut down. Of course, I don't know exactly, because I'm playing games to get it to go that high, not watching the temperature read-out. I keep my temperture warning noise set to 109 C and I usually have enough time to cool things down when I hear the warning go off.
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iynqueJan 4 '13 at 22:44

I frequently have my macbook around 80 degrees c (when rendering video), having a program like smcfancontrol can be used to manually raise the fan speed, and help lower CPU temperature in advance of a period of high CPU usage. I find that the shut off point of my macbook seems to be around 90 degrees

While I'm in Windows, my fans are pretty much at 6000 RPM constantly (the max my fans can go). I have to have a small fan blowing across the aluminum case (which is on a raised platform to expose the bottom surface too) to prevent it from shutting down while I'm actually doing anything intensive with it. It usually runs between 160F (a browser) and up to and over 200F (intensive 3D programs). While playing Tribes, I can usually stay under 212F and my Mac doesn't shut down yet at that point. I'm just wondering if there's any hard data on the ceiling for my particular MacBook Pro (or any model).
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iynqueJul 21 '12 at 19:18

I don't know how much those temp values are (we use the more logical C here lol) and i'm not even gonna both converting it… but maxed fan speeds like that are not normal
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XAleXOwnZXJul 21 '12 at 19:42

I monitor my graphics card, CPU, and HDD temperatures and elevate the fan speeds (with SMC Fan Control) if one of them exceeds that.

60 degC is (rough rule-of-thumb) the hottest temperature we can stand to touch, and in the absence of published specs, I arbitrarily took that as a conservative upper limit, assuming that materials can stand a higher temperature than I can. While it may be unnecessarily conservative, it's not likely to have the consequences an insufficiently conservative limit would have.